Gadgets

Whether for a proposal, the big day, or ‘just because’, these rings will leave the recipient glowing. Though there is a choice to be made between two projects: Glowing Rings, or Carbon 6. What’s the difference between their offers?

Adverts on LED walls are now an everyday occurrence. That’s why Breakfast New York made a much more impressive display project reality for the fashion company Forever 21. This screen contains colourful threads between which the image is interlaced.

Finding the perfect lamp isn’t always easy – particularly if you’re looking for something with its own unique flair. Thanks to the ‘Baselamp’ from Luke Lamp Co., you can transform practically anything – your favourite bottle of whisky, your goldfish bowl, a bottle of perfume, for example – into a lamp with personality. And the company has a series of artistic designs on offer that could provide a stylish finishing touch to any room.

Swimmers need to train hard to attain their goals. In most sports, music can be a valuable aid to concentration and hence improved performance. That’s always been something of a problem underwater, though, until now: Finis’ waterproof Neptune V2 MP3 player makes music and swimming compatible.

The big show: for the stars, and their backing dancers, creating a real spectacle and getting the crowd going is everything. But they’re not the only ones who want to make a big impression: sometimes, ‘civilians’ like you and me want to catch the eye when we go to festivals or to the club. For fans of trainers, Orphe ‘smartshoes’ have been providing the perfect visual accompaniment for Japanese partygoers, and makers No new folk studio now intend to win over European and American consumers.

A dog is a man’s best friend; LEDs’ share of the lighting market has been steadily increasing for years. So … why not combine the two, and create one totally crazy gizmo that mankind might not necessarily need, but can’t help but want? The creative minds at PARTY, a collective of designers and engineers from New York and Tokyo, may well have been thinking along those lines when they created Disco Dog. Disco Dog is a dog vest that does more than just keep Fido warm: it turns him into a four-legged disco ball.

What would life be without music? It can lift your mood and drive you on. Many of us take it for granted that we always have our music collections with us, either on an MP3 player or a smartphone. But what is everyone else listening to, what sort of music are they into? This is a question that usually remains unanswered. Until now. The team behind the Kickstarter project ‘Glow’ are changing that: they have developed glowing laser headphones, whose cables and earbuds pulsate in colour to the rhythm of your music, the game you are playing on your smartphone, or even your heart.

Have you ever thought it might be fun to have your own beats sound tracking your day? The guys at Swedish synth makers Teenage Engineering did, so they’ve developed three battery-powered synthesisers called ‘Pockets Operators’ (PO). They fit in your trouser pocket and make real synth sound a portable proposition. These are three miniature marvels: the PO-12 ‘rhythm’ drum machine, PO-14 ‘sub’ bass, and PO-16 ‘factory’ melody synthesiser.

They say that a dog is man’s best friend, and it comes as no surprise when one of our four-legged friends has such a close bond with its master that it copies what they do. Just like in our web find of the week! A French bulldog bitch pulls off a laid back scratch with her maître as if she had been weaned on decks. The musical bulldog with street credibility, DJ MAMA has chased down more than three and a quarter million YouTube clicks. Good dog! And if you just can’t get enough, the lovable pup stars in yet more turntable tales on the video platform. So don’t hesitate, see MAMA spin, and enjoy!

This ‘music box’ houses probably the most unusual orchestra in the world. Seventeen musical instruments all fitted in a hand-finished oak case, operated by means of a precisely calibrated system of pneumatics. The system plucks, strums, and plays drums. Along with a bass and a snare drum, twelve additional percussion instruments feature in the jukebox, including bongos, agogos, woodblocks, a tambourine, maracas, and a cow bell, along with three types of cymbal (ride, crash, and splash). The rhythm section is supported by a bass synthesiser that ensures the low notes get their due. A full-sized guitar and a banjo see to the melody and harmonies.

The DJ has everything set up, the guests are ready to party, there are plenty of drinks and snacks - the only thing missing is the perfect lighting. That’s where a couple of bright sparks from Brooklyn come in. They invented the L3D Cube, a 3D LED matrix that responds to music and background noise via its built-in microphone and transforms sound into a one of a kind light display. Right now, the project is still in the formative stage on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, but it has already proved tremendously popular.

New York’s famous Times Square has a new addition: a billboard that breaks boundaries. It is eight stories high and the length of a football pitch. Its almost 24 million LED pixels light up Manhattan’s fabled tourist destination - a total of 2,300m2 of deluxe advertising space. This makes Mitsubishi’s Diamond Vision display not just the largest video display in the world, but also the most technologically advanced: a true first.

Music must match the mood. Sure, you can do that with a playlist, but you have to take time out to make them first. What if there was a device that could automatically adapt to the situation in the room and start playing the right music, depending on who is present? This is exactly what a group of French music lovers asked themselves before creating Prizm – probably the most ingenious music player of all time. It started as a crowdfunding project. Now, it's just a question of time before it hits the shops.

The curtain rises, the stars enter the arena, and… well, yeah, the young man at the mixing desk won’t have been expecting that. This week’s web find shows just how much focus and skill is needed to operate a mixing desk successfully. Anyone can press a button and turn a knob. But they should still be the right ones. Otherwise, this happens:

“As kids we used to play with flashlights and remote control cars. Now we are grown and wise men and we came up with a laser hexacopter. It’s so cool and KVANT,” wrote Slovakian laser manufacturer KVANT on its Facebook profile, introducing its latest big boys’ toy. The flying laser show is our gadget of the week!

“It get late earlier” – autumn is definitely here. There might still be a few sunny day, but there’s already a nip in the air in the mornings. Wearing headphones on the way to work or uni can start becoming a bit of a pain at this time of year. Without a hat you get cold, with a hat you can’t get your headphones on properly. Not to worry: you can take whatever winter throws at you if you have the Gadget of the Week, the Bluetooth iMusic Beanie.

This iMusic headgear has a real trick up its sleeves (as it were) – integrated headphones that connect to your smartphone or tablet (or other device) via Bluetooth. It can be charged without fuss via USB, and there are no cables. Let’s be having you, winter! And if you don’t happen to fancy listening to music, you can always take the earpieces out and enjoy a simple old school beanie to keep your ears warm.

Fashion and functionality can make the purrfect combination. The proof? The kooky headphones that won’t just be scratching cat lovers behind the ears. The Axent Wear cat ear headphones aren’t available in the shops – yet. The crowdfunding project is still seeking backers. With success – the cat headphone idea has proven so resonant that almost $800,000 has been raised within a matter of days.

Musicians and radio journalists know just how important a good-quality microphone is. But we all know that real life writes the best stories, and getting hold of them means leaving the studio once in a while. Problem is, it’s not exactly practical taking a lot of studio equipment with you on the street. Well, the gadget of the week is here to help: Apogee has developed a microphone that makes studio-quality recording portable.